Page 52 of Possessed By Shadows

Micah let me lean heavily on him, taking slow and careful steps through the rising water as we made our way to their cop car. Only one car responding in this area meant they hadn’t expected more than maybe some squatters. For that I was grateful. And once we were in the back of their car, heater blasting and headed toward the police station, I thought it might be the only time in my life I might be happy to actually be in police custody.

Big cop was Officer Brant Michaels. He looked like a Brant. Weird name. But he had been right about the paperwork. At least we were seated at his desk instead of some interrogation room. After about two hours I couldn’t stop shivering. The water that had soaked into my pants wasn’t drying all that fast and the chill seemed to reach through my bones.

“We got word from the owners. Film crew is supposed to be there this week, but they are supposed to put up signs, caution tape, and have a big tent outside,” the Latina woman’s name was Officer Lisa Kellerson.

“I think the rain stopped that,” I said. We hadn’t been able to check our phones or anything, but I was quickly becoming wobbly and my senses dulling from the cold and lingering pain. It really sucked being old and permanently damaged from my military days.

“Any word about Lukas?” Micah asked. His answers had been very professional and succinct without giving away anything about me seeing faces or anything in the dark. I envied his way of spinning a story to leave out what would make people think we were insane. He didn’t even mention the camera we had found, though it was in his bag. Instead indicating it was his. I let him answer, and agreed when possible, playing up my injury from the fall to keep them from looking at me too closely. Sure, it was hiding behind my boyfriend, but if it kept both of us from being arrested or locked in a psych ward, I was all for it.

“Nothing. He’s not at any of the other precincts,” Kellerson said. “Nothing at the hospitals either, under his name or matching his description.”

“He’s just AWOL again,” Michaels said. “He needs a permanent GPS tracker attached to him. At least his permit was suspended.”

Permit? His gun permit? That was news to me. “Did you work with him in the past?” I asked.

“On and off. When he showed up.”

“But he was on the force ten years. He couldn’t have been that unreliable,” I said. How little did I know my brother?

“Wasn’t until after the shooting. But they made him go to therapy. Cop kills another cop and there is always trouble. From within, our own folks giving him trouble, and probably in his head. Killing someone is never easy. Tweaker or former partner,” Kellerson said. “I can’t imagine going through that myself. But he really went off the rails after that.”

“He was driven out,” Michaels said. “Rodney got what was coming to him. Kaine had the balls a lot of other cops wouldn’t have. No one wants to bear down on one of our own. But he was traffickingkids.”

Like trafficking adults was better? And for a cop? That was all news to me. Nothing about the shooting, or Sky’s event had been on the news other than a general overview. Cops had rescued some kids before they could have been farmed out to a big ring. Nothing mentioned that a cop had been part of creating that mess.

“He was always a bit weird. Caine, I mean,” Kellerson said. “Not a bad guy. A bit spacey sometimes. Intense once he got a lead. But people liked him, talked to him.”

“I didn’t know it was a former partner,” Micah added softly.

“They’d parted ways a few years back. Rodney claimed Caine was a bitintensefor his tastes,” Michaels said, as though remembering an old conversation. “I think that was speak for: enforcing rules and law?”

“Do you think Caine reported something?” Kellerson asked. “I never worked with Rodney, but he was an asshole, and I knew to steer clear. Was grateful I never got paired with him.”

Michaels shrugged. “We wouldn’t have heard anyway.” He sighed, and finished typing up stuff. “Report is filed. We’ll call if we get anything on him.”

“Could any of the other cops be an issue?” I asked. “I mean not to sound like I’m doubting you guys,” which I did, but I wasn’t going to press the issue to a cop, “if someone is mad about this Rodney guy. Would they go after Lukas?”

“After all this time?” Michaels shrugged.

Good to know where their priorities were, which weren’t with my brother’s safety.

“He’s more likely gone off the rails again. Happened a lot that last year,” Kellerson said. “He’d go missing a couple days. We’d find him in some random corner looking like he’d lost a few days to drugs. Though every time he was tested, he came up clean. Nothing in his system. It was why it took them so long to oust him.” She gave me a tight smile. “He wasn’t a bad cop. In fact, his solve rate was great. Praised for de-escalation and relatability. He just really struggled to show up to work.”

“That boyfriend of his was a distraction,” Michaels said.

“Girlfriend,” I corrected.

The look he gave me was unfriendly, like he wanted to protest and call Sky a boy, but knew it would get him in trouble.

“Girlfriend.”

“Sky takes care of him as best she can. Seems he doesn’t share as much with us as we would like,” Micah said.

Understatement of the year.

“That’s a cop for you. Once a cop always a cop,” Kellerson muttered. “And that’s not always a good thing. My dad was a cop.” It didn’t sound like a rousing endorsement.

“And you became a cop because of him?” I asked.

“A little. But only because of how he treated women. I thought more women on the force would mean certain things are taken more seriously.”

But they weren’t. I caught that last part without her having to say it, nodding my agreement and sympathy instead.

“Can we go? Alex needs to get warmed up,” Micah said.

I needed a hot bath and my boyfriend. Though neither were likely to soothe the anxiety over all I was finding out about Lukas.

“Sure.” Michaels handed over a card. “Call us if you hear from Lukas. He’ll show up eventually.”

I wished I had their confidence in my brother. For now, I was just worried he was dead in a ditch somewhere, shot in retaliation for killing a cop who had been trafficking minors.